I helped my Occupier-friend move back to California, and in turn, she blessed me with a bunch of amazingly wonderful old stuff she could not find room to pack: a Tibetan prayer wheel, several tarot decks (including the fabulous Haindl Tarot, Day of the Dead and Goddess Tarot), various sacred and voodoo oils, candles, linens, a sweater and jacket, a clay sculpture of Ariadne, a small brass Buddha, assorted office supplies and unused photo albums, an antique teddy bear and so much more.

It's been like Christmas for hippies.

I still wish she would stay. Greenville needs more enlightened souls who will hang around awhile. I have decided that building our Occupy Greenville chapter is one way to ensure this. We had a picnic on Saturday, and I was reminded of what wonderful folks we are lucky to have, and how tight-knit our group has become as a result.

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Unfortunately, evil, bigoted, homophobic laws like the one currently being voted on in North Carolina today (denying equal marriage rights to gay couples) are one reason the cool people leave, as I have complained in this space so many times.Yeah. There's a people sitting on the edge of their seats over this one. Polls close in about 15min. and in about 20min. I will either be working on an "In your face, homophobes!" post or a "I'm sorry" post.

Historically speaking, the South hasn't been friendly to progressives, and the whole atmosphere down there is.. well, to be blunt, poisoned. Any place large numbers of people have died due to non natural causes becomes polluted. I wouldn't visit Germany, or Poland either. Argentina, Chile and Russia are places I'm on the fence about; they have interesting birds, but the pollution is pervasive. And neither place would be a place I'd want to live for long. There's another problem too; too many Christians. Once a population of believers reaches a critical mass, all the individuals are thrust beyond rationality and reason. That's why we had the Dark Ages in Europe.

Sorry to hear about your friend's leaving. But hopefully you can stay in touch.

I wrote my "fun with highways" article for your neighbors to the north, including Asheville. I was sorry to hear that the amendment passed, though after Prop 8 I feel like I can't get particularly indignant at particular states. Instead, I direct it towards unenlightened ideas and the people who follow them.

Zzhinxy: True, but the problem in the South is that the past is much more recent. Everywhere else, there was a gradual awakening, and fundamentalism has mostly been curbed outside the South- and Alaska. The problem with the South is that they've never admitted wrong-doing, thoroughly erase history and still teach children that there are people who it is acceptable to view as non-human. I don't see that changing, and frankly, it's been getting worse. I expect witch burning some time this century.

PGP, 1) Black people are also "the south"... like about 33% in the Carolinas. You seem to be saying "the south" to mean the white south only, and that annoys a lot of African-Americans, who built the place with their bare hands and still reside here. 2) You also seem to think the New South is the same as the Old South. Nope. Lots of yankees and foreigners have moved here and retired in droves, precisely BECAUSE of the south's hyper-conservative reputation, thus strengthening the right-wing base. Even the parents of our governor moved here for that reason, and now we have to contend with their proud progeny. Nikki Haley is hardly a product of the Old South, which is a major reason why she won the election. This is why they continually tout her as "the face of the New South" ad nauseam.

zhinxy, thank you for your input! Interestingly, Hawaii has also changed because of major population shifts, so you probably know something about that too.

Sevesteen, ahhh don't make me name all the Marxist checklists and boring-ass ideological tests one can engage in, to check whether an organization is going off the rails. Suffice to say, I would recommend reading Trotsky at length (who was a terrier until he was formally exiled) and then, Saul Alinsky.

In short, when I think a collective or organization is going off the rails big time (according to my own values), I take my leave.

Thank you for the wonderful tribute, Daisy. I'm not even dead yet. You realize you'd have to up your game for that. ;)

Despite Greenville's ultra-conservative ethos, I would have stayed if I'd been able, simply from the delight of meeting you and the other members of Occupy Greenville. I've met some great people in Greenville. Generous people, kind people. And we certainly have something worth fighting for, don't we?

"Yeah. There's a people sitting on the edge of their seats over this one. Polls close in about 15min. and in about 20min. I will either be working on an "In your face, homophobes!" post or a "I'm sorry" post."

You have nothing to be sorry about, Danny. It wasn't you. See the post next up about that initiative for my longer comment on it.

"Political Guinea Pig - Eh, not that the South ISN'T... But the history of Native America - North, South, Midwest, and Alaska and my childhood home Hawaii is poisoned by genocide, no?"

That's the history of everywhere, the whole damned planet. And in North America it didn't start four hundred years ago. There are a few places on the West Coast where the original people were all along, and some still are, but even there most places had had a lot of expropriation and ethnnocide. No one even had a word for it or cared about it unless it was happening to them until 50 or 60 years ago.